


eventually soulmates meet, for they have the same hiding place

by ShellyNelsonLahey



Category: Archie Comics & Related Fandoms, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Jeronica, Vughead, barchie, choni
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2020-10-18 14:03:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20640380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShellyNelsonLahey/pseuds/ShellyNelsonLahey
Summary: Cheryl Blossom and Toni Topaz were the head bitches of Riverdale High, except each ruled over the different sides of the school. Cheryl and her upper class cheerleaders and jocks, and Toni with the South Side Serpents. Every day, they fight over the most meaningless things—mostly because of Cheryl and her flair for the dramatic, but it isn’t until the two are paired up for a creationism story for soulmates that their ideas spring into action on more than just paper.Waking up in the body of the girl you believe you hate, both Cheryl and Toni have to walk more than a mile one each other’s shoes and realize just what it is that makes them… them.





	1. Chapter 1

Cheryl Blossom gulped down the angry bile that rose to her throat as her vile mother, Penelope, ripped up the sketch paper she had been sketching on for the whole week. To make things worse, she was getting paid for that sketch—her cousin Betty Cooper was figuring out a way to tell Archie Andrews that she had a crush on him, but she still wanted to have the ability to play it off as a sweet gesture for Riverdale High’s annual Frienduary Day in case he rejected her. Frienduary Day was the day after Valentine’s, and it was highly anticipated throughout the district.

The picture was just a rough sketch, but she had put in a lot of work to get the angles right, and for her mother to destroy all of that simply because she had only sketched Betty until that point, she was beyond pissed. However, she couldn’t raise her voice at her mother without suffering the consequences and she wasn’t into losing her phone or her car, or whatever insane punishment her mother would think up.

“Enough of this immoral obsession, Cheryl. It’s not healthy,” Penelope crossed her arms sternly, both sides of the ripped paper crunched tightly in her right hand. “And it’s not normal for girls like you to fantasize about other girls—especially your cousin. Remember the talk we had when Jason and Polly began dating?”

_If liking girls wasn’t normal, then why have I liked girls since I was young?_ Cheryl wanted to snap at her, but instead she bit her tongue on that topic and sighed. “Mother, Betty is paying me to draw a picture of her and Archie for Valentine’s day. I’ve been too busy trying to capture Betty’s angle for the picture that I haven’t been able to draw Archie yet.”

Penelope froze, analyzing her daughter’s face for any sign of a lie. But it was the truth, and therefore she knew her daughter was being honest, and that she would have to make up for what she had done. “Oh, I am so sorry, Cheryl. I just thought that after what happened with Heather… ”

Through her teeth, Cheryl chuckled, “it’s okay, mother. I’ll just try and give Betty a quick sketch of her and Archie to see if she’ll like it, and work on the real sketch once we have something approved. After school, may I go draw down by the river? I’ll be back before dinner.”

“Of course, dear,” Penelope smiled gently, “i’ll make it up to you, Cheryl, I promise.”

Cheryl didn’t care for her mother’s empty promises. Penelope would simply throw money at whatever problem she caused and hope it would change something, and if it didn’t, she would get angry that her “apology” wasn’t accepted. So, throughout the years Cheryl has pretended everything was fine and simply held all of her emotions inside because what was the point if they would only end up in a screaming match later? However, she could admit she liked the money her mother paid her off with—it allowed her to buy herself whatever she wanted, so she couldn’t really complain in the long run. How else would she have been able to buy a fake ID to get a hold of adult items growing up as a repressed, closeted lesbian?

“I have to get to school, mom.” Cheryl waited until her mother had handed her the pieces of the sketch, hoping that with some tape she could put it back together well enough to show Betty and work around it. With another apologetic sigh, Penelope placed the pieces into her hand. “How about I make you a cherry pie for when you get home, mmhm?” Cheryl didn’t want pie, she preferred something tangible like jewelry, clothes, another car, or money. Mostly money, because then she wouldn’t have to pretend her mother’s awful taste in whatever the gift ended up being was to her liking. Before she could shake her head and feign being gracious, her mother sent her a knowing smirk. “Along with the money I normally give you after we fight.”

“Sounds delightful, mumzy.” Cheryl and her mother kissed the air beside their cheeks, and she had to physically keep herself from gagging at the scent of cigarette smoke that lingered on her mother’s bright red shawl. “I’ll see you after school. But, don’t forget that I have cheerleading practice so I won’t be back until five or six.”

“No worries, dear, we’ll just have cherry pie for dessert,” Penelope waved to her daughter as she slung her backpack over her shoulder and snagged her keys from the bowl by the door. “Remember, if that South Side slut decides to give you a hard time, simply remind her that no one messes with a Blossom.”

Rolling her eyes, Cheryl mumbled words that she hoped sounded like an agreement before she swiftly exited Thornhill Manor. Finally, she was alone, and she wouldn’t have to pretend to be someone she wasn’t for her dastardly mother. Climbing into the front seat of the 1961 convertible Chevrolet Impala her brother Jason gifted her when he moved to college, she gripped the mirror and tilted it down to show her face and fixed her crimson lipstick. “Let’s show Riverdale High what you’re made of, Cheryl Bombshell.”

Cheryl winced as her eyes trailed over Betty’s figure, thinking back to the ripped sketch paper in her backpack. Sure, it was just a sketch and she had two weeks before Valentine’s Day, but things like that shouldn’t happen in the first place. It wasn’t her fault that her family was fucked up, but, still, she felt awful. “Betty, hey,” Cheryl smiled gently, tugging on her light pink sleeve to shuffle away from Jughead, Archie, and Veronica.

“Hey, Cheryl,” Betty laughed lightly, waiting until they were an appropriate distance away before asking her cousin why she was being pulled from her friends. “What’s up, is something wrong?”

“My mom ripped up the sketch of you and Archie,” biting down on her lower lip guiltily, even though it wasn’t her fault, she twisted her backpack around and opened it up, reaching into it to grab the pieces of paper. “Thank God it was only a sketch, but I really liked it so far. I had almost perfected your pose and then I was going to work on Archie.”

“Oh, that’s awful…” Betty squeezed her cousin’s shoulder sympathetically. “Could I see it? I could give it a look over, or something.” Cheryl nodded at her request, handing the papers to Betty. “Mmhm, it’s right down the middle, maybe we could tape it up if you don’t want to start over completely.”

“What? No. I just wanted to make sure you liked how you looked so I could get to Archie’s portion of the sketch. Do you like it so far, because if so I can use that as a basis and then get to work on Archie,” Cheryl stated, hoping that Betty liked it. Despite their past, they were close and her thoughts mattered greatly. “I know you’ve liked him for a long time and I want this to be perfect, and not just because you’re paying me fifty dollars to draw you and your hopefully-future-boyfriend. This needs to be perfect because you deserve to be happy.”

Betty opened her mouth to reply, most likely to say that she already was happy, or that Cheryl deserved to be happy, too, but she closed it and took in a deep breath. “Thank you, Cheryl, I really appreciate you doing this.”

“Of course, you and Archie are soulmates, and I know he likes you back. Honestly, if you simply switched bodies with him for a day you would see how much he adores you,” Cheryl smiled lightly, rubbing the blonde’s arm sweetly for a couple of moments before she took a couple of steps back. “Anyways, class will be starting soon. I’ll begin redrawing you, and get Archie done by Valentine’s. Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”

“Okay, thanks, Cheryl,” Betty nodded and raised a hand as the cousins parted ways. However, she stopped and drew her eyebrows in, turning back to Cheryl. “Wait… do you have anyone you like?”

Cheryl froze in her stance, spinning around to look at the girl who looked genuinely curious. She wanted to tell her, but too much had happened in the past—they had grown closer since but the idea of coming out to someone who could retaliate and tell everybody… she couldn’t risk it. Besides, she didn’t really like anybody. She had a small crush on Veronica, thought that Toni had really attractive brown eyes, but other than that, she hadn’t liked anybody like she had liked Heather. “Me? No. I’ll be sneaking some wine from the cellar and watching sappy romances on Netflix with a box of heart-shaped pizza.”

“I feel bad that you’re helping me and i’m not doing anything in return,” Betty murmured sadly, eyes cast to the ground and hands conjoined behind her back. Lifting her baby blue eyes, she sent Cheryl a sincere look. “If you ever need help, though, you know we’re there for you, right? Veronica and I? I’ll always be here for you.”

“Yeah…” Cheryl nodded, eyes lifting up as the bell rang loudly above her head. “Uh, we both have to go. I’ll see you later?”

She heard her cousin respond with a “yes” as they once again parted ways. She shuffled her way towards Mrs. LaCount’s Mythology class, one of her most favorite subjects despite having it with queen of the Serpents, Toni Topaz. To make matters worse, they sat beside each other thanks to the seating chart they wrote their names on the first day. Toni had no choice than to choose to sit beside Cheryl—it was either her or Chuck and while he had apparently changed for the better, anyone could see why she would rather sit beside the queen bee of Riverdale High even though the two had a rivalry going on over Chuck.

Mrs. LaCount greeted her students with a bright, ready smile. She stood beside the smartboard and waited until everybody had come in about three minutes after the bell had rung to start with her lesson. “Valentine’s Day may be two weeks away, but I wanted to begin getting in the mood so we will be learning about the myth of how soulmates were created. And in the last half of class, you and your partner beside you will be paired up to create your own soulmate creationism story!”

Cheryl bit the inside of her cheeks as she glanced at Toni next to her, knowing they would be working together because that’s how it always was. She would be working on the idea of soulmates with someone who would never in a million years look at her with even an ounce of fondness. It wasn’t a secret that she was into both boys and girls, and despite that notion, the very idea of Toni falling for Cheryl was laughable. They could be the last two women on Earth with the magical ability to create a baby and Toni would rather the human species die out.

“In the beginning, there were three parents: the Sun, Moon, and the Earth and each of them produced an offspring. The Sun produced man, earth produced woman, and the moon produced androgyne—an androgynous human. Each of these three were a double, one head with two faces looking in opposite directions, accompanied with four arms and legs, and two sets of genitalia,” Mrs. LaCount clapped her hands together, turning to the class with her eyebrows raised expectantly. “Does anyone want to guess as to what happened next that would make the gods separate us from our soulmates?”

A girl raised her hand, “because Zeus was jealous that he couldn’t keep it in his pants and wanted to take it out on us?”

Mrs. LaCount laughed lightly at the worldwide knowledge of Zeus being unable to stop himself from butting into everybody’s relationship, but shook her head. Cheryl knew the answer—what is the one thing human beings are known for? War.

Much to Cheryl’s surprise, Toni flipped her hair back behind her shoulders before raising her hand. With a nod for her to go on, Toni leaned back in her chair. “Let me guess, they decided to attack the gods and went straight to Mt. Olympus as a way to gain the upper hand? It’s one of humanity’s worst traits, we get into stupid wars that we will either lose, or don’t have to be a part of in the first place. Zeus may not be able to stop getting into everyone’s pants and therefore causing so many unnecessary fights and punishments, but if I were him, I would punish us, too.”

“Good job, Miss Topaz!” Mrs. LaCount beamed, clicking her remote for the slide to change and get back to her presentation. “The gods wondered how they were going to show those foolish humans the error of their ways; were they going to shoot them down with thunderbolts? Too boring for them, already been done… Zeus thought about it until he had a brainwave. Humans weren’t a real threat, but they did, however, need to go down a peg or two. Zeus decided that if they were cut in half, they would be only half as fast and half as strong, since together the soulmates were double the person. He also liked that his plan could be reused; should the humans act up again, he would leave them with only one leg and one arm each.”

“Mrs. LaCount, if evolution suggests that we take after primates, then does that mean we were put back into our original state?” A boy interrupted, barely raising his hand as he interrupted the teacher. Thankfully, she was one of the school’s favorites because she didn’t care about control, she genuinely cared about her students learning and so this question piqued her interest.

“Well, Mr. Sweets, that is a very great question. However, this is mythology, not biology, and therefore we do not cover that,” she sighed, “but if I had to answer, I would say no simply because we as humans are not aware of who our soulmate is, and Zeus would merely strike us down those pegs until we learned our lesson and stayed apart.”

“Do soulmates even exist?”

“Sadly, we are unsure but I sure like to think they do. Maybe they’re even sitting beside you, drawn to the same classroom by fate and the pull of your unseen bond… Now I have to get back to the slides and finish before the end of class or else you might have to take your project home with you. If you have any remaining questions, please wait until the end of class, thank you,” Mrs. LaCount smiled.

“Damn, I wanted to ask her about her thoughts on what we looked and stall the class,” a whisper was heard but nobody paid any mind to the boy.

Mrs. LaCount cleared her throat and clicked the button again. “Zeus asked for Apollo’s aid in putting his plan in effect. He cut humans man-man, woman-woman, and man-woman in half and then Apolly made the necessary repairs. Since their heads were turned to the side, he had to correct them and turned them inward, and gathered all of the skin together with an opening in the middle as a reminder to mankind’s earlier state.”

Cheryl found the imagery of that odd, disgusting. But, it’s what they looked like now so she wasn’t sure why she imagined something inhuman.

“After the surgery, the half-creatures ran around frantically looking for their other halves, seeking them out, embracing them, and trying to join together again. However, they weren’t able to and, in despair, began to starve to death in their sorrow. Zeus craved to be worshipped, so he decided he had to do something to recharge their spirits. With Apollo’s help again, they made it so humankind could rejoin temporarily, moving the genitals to the belly side of the body.”

“Wait, so everything was… behind us, or to the side? That’s so gross!”

Mrs. LaCount paused to laugh before she continued past the outcry of disgust. “Before, mankind had procreated by dropping seeds on the ground, and this new system created an interesting new means of producing offspring. I am sure you teenagers know a lot about that, so I simply have one thing to add: be safe, okay?”

“Got it, Mrs. LC, i’ll be sure to think of you the next time i’m being safe!”

The class snickered lowly at that. Cheryl thought he was dumb. He obviously was kidding, and simply wanted the teacher to squirm at the idea, but it was so disgusting and inappropriate. She might have tended to be a bitch, but that was a whole other level of trying to be cool. One of the reasons she knew was why she didn’t like men…

“The creatures who had been double women before naturally sought out women; those who had been androgynous, sought out members of the opposite gender; those who had been double men, sought out the company of men. However, it wasn’t simply for intercourse, but so they could become whole again by being rejoined with their soulmates.”

“I thought they were homophobic?”

Cheryl rolled her eyes, “yeah, they were totally homophobic despite many of the people and the gods being into the same sex. We talked about this weeks ago, but I guess your tiny male brain can’t comprehend the natural examples of homosexuality.” She couldn’t help but see the appreciative, almost proud smirk that Toni threw at her. And she damned herself for thinking that her lips were very, very attractive and very, very kissable in that moment. She had to remind herself that Toni would never want her like that. All she had were her dreams.

“Settle down, now… it’s time that you get together with the person next to you and create your own creationism story on soulmates,” Mrs. LaCount laughed. “Over the next twenty minutes, you will need to be working. Now, whether that’s spent over ideas or actual writing, that is up to you. It is due in two days, so if you have to go over to your partner’s house, make plans in advance, alright?”

Cheryl and Toni let out small sighs as they turned to one another. “Look, I get that you aren’t very fond of me but I want to get a good grade on this, so can we put aside our differences for this project?”

Cheryl was taken aback. She had figured Toni would want her to do all of the work, and simply take credit for it when it was due but clearly she was wrong. “Oh… uh… yeah. Of course. Are there any ideas you have thought about yet?”

“Actually, yeah,” Toni nodded, exhaling deeply while leaning back in her chair. “We could start with how Zeus took away our soulmates, but instead of humans scrambling to find a way to come together, they trade places for an entire week.”

“To figure out where their soulmate is to connect with them, or because it’ll allow them to get to know them as their own separate person?” Cheryl questioned, intrigued. She had an idea close to what Toni had suggested, but Toni’s was by far much better.

“This is our creationism story. It doesn’t have to follow what we just heard,” Toni chuckled lightly, “I like the idea of being put into someone else’s shoes to see things from their perspective.”

“Okay, I like that. A lot, really,” Cheryl voiced her surprise, “should we both create an outline for how we believe it should go and then come together and mix it for our paper?”

“You know, maybe you’re not as dumb as you want people to think, Cheryl Bombshell,” Toni cooly smirked, her piercing brown eyes staring into the girl beside her—although she tried to hide the fact that she was really watching the way she pursed her lips at the observation. Toni could tell that behind that cold, bitchy exterior that she fought with almost every day, there was a smart, broken girl who lashed out at others because… well, she wasn’t entirely sure, but the idea of switching bodies with her to find out seemed intriguing to her. Of course, she would never be able to get underneath the Blossom’s walls. They were enemies, and most _definitely_ not soulmates.


	2. Chapter 2

“No, you’re the one who fucked up, so you’re telling Toni!” Toni Topaz flicked her eyes open as she heard the muffled, yet booming voice of Sweet Pea. He was a member of the South Side Serpents, a gang in which Toni ruled. Whoever he was arguing with were outside of her trailer, but nonetheless they had woken her up, and if they were loud enough for her, they were loud enough for her uncle Tan. Letting out a deep sigh, she knew her duties as leader of the Serpents was going to come into play and at five in the morning, that was the last thing she wanted. But this was her gang and she had to keep it in tip-top shape because it was her legacy. If she wouldn’t do it, someone else would have to step up and essentially they would ruin the gang whether they meant to or not because nobody else was a descendent of the Uktena tribe that started the Serpents. It was all up to her.

“Who the fuck is out there screaming at five in the morning?” Uncle Tan screamed, prompting Toni to rip the covers off of her body just in time for him to come bounding into the main area of the trailer. He slept in the bedroom, while Toni had to slum it on the couch. She hated it, but unless she could scrounge up enough money for her own trailer, there was nothing she could do. “Toni, this is the fifth time in a row… if your booty calls wake me up one more time I am kicking you out of this trailer, you hear me?”

Toni tiredly ran a hand over her face, and then into her pink hair. “They’re not my booty calls, uncle Tan, they’re from the Serpents. I’m sorry, i’ll go deal with them right now.”

“If they were your booty calls, they’d be much better than those girls you bring over. They’re louder, and much more annoying,” Uncle Tan growled lowly, slamming the door to his bedroom shut.

Right now, she was much too exhausted to put much care into her look for the day. Throwing on some ripped black jeans, a grey tank top, and her normal black combat boots with a skull and crossbones at the top, she spritzed on some perfume and ran deodorant over her armpits. She would add her accessories and Serpent jacket later when she was actually going to school.

With a quick fix of her hair in the mirror just beside the door, she thrust it open and glared at the two Serpent boys who guiltily stood before her with their heads down and hands clasped in front of their hips. It was their submissive way of apologizing, which she admired, but she was too annoyed to genuinely give a shit at the moment. “What the fuck, you two?”

“We were whispering about telling you what Jughead’s dumbass did, and I may have… gotten a bit too pissed at him,” Sweet Pea explained lowly, shifting his weight onto his left foot and avoiding all eye contact by keeping his head down. “I’m sorry, Toni.”

Her features softed. Unlike ruthless leaders who didn’t care about apologies, she made it known that she was a just and fair leader, and so she had to uphold that. With a nod telling him she appreciated his apology, she sighed, “I was up until two in the morning after dealing with Fangs’ mother in the hospital, and then working on a draft of a creationism story I have in mythology, so what the fuck are you doing waking me up with three hours of sleep? It better be good, or I swear to God you both are being put on bodyguard duty for La Bonne Nuit.”

The two looked at one another, Sweet Pea raising his eyebrows expectantly. Toni let out an annoyed huff, crossing her arms as she watched them. They were always at each other’s throats, and she would always have to resolve whatever stupid reason they were fighting. Sweet Pea had some anger issues because of his upbringing, but she couldn’t blame him for being angry at Jughead. He was the son of the previous leader, FP, and he had a unique knack for butting into things he didn’t need to be, which fucked things up. Don’t get him wrong, though, Jughead Jones was incredibly loyal, and for that reason alone she would feel wrong to kick him out of the Serpents. She would rather have loyal members who mess up—sometimes more than others—than idiots with something to prove, idiots who despised being under the rule of a woman. So, while Jughead messed up, she knew that unless he did something catastrophically bad, she couldn’t just throw him out of the Serpents, his whole life, over dumb mistakes.

When Jughead stuttered out a nervous breath, Sweet Pea sent him a scowl and hit him on the arm, prompting the boy to finally let out what they woke her up for. “Betty Cooper is trying to sniff around for a story again, and I may have drunkenly told her about our raid on Lodge Industries,” Jughead winced, waiting for Toni to lash out at him, to scream, to kick, to punch him, to do anything. It wasn’t how she ruled, but the thought was instilled in him from childhood. However, he never thought he’d be more afraid of the fact that she didn’t react like he thought she would. Instead, she smirked. Glancing at Sweet Pea, he whispered, “I’ve never seen this look before… is she going to feed me to the wolves?”

Sweet Pea shook his head, just as unsure as he was. “I don’t know, man. I’m just glad it’s not because of me.”

Toni clapped, not meaning to make the boys in front of her jump, but because she had come up with a plan. “Since you managed to tell blonde barbie our plans, you’ll be tasked with telling her that she has to help. She’s in this now.”

Jughead scoffed, “wait a second, but Betty Cooper isn’t one of us. Her mother may have been one long ago but Betty would never help us. She’s too… good. She’s the perfect girl next door, how do you expect me to convince her to help us?”

“Tell her that she has no choice but to help us. If she doesn’t, her little redheaded boyfriend will find out that she’s the reason Rocco Montgomery suddenly had a change of heart before becoming Archie Andrews’ boyfriend, and she’s why he spent that Friday afternoon dabbing a chocolate milkshake out of his hair and varsity jacket,” Toni raised her eyebrows expectantly, which Jughead knew meant that she wasn’t going to take any of his excuses. She laughed lightly, though, shaking her head, “I guess Betty Cooper didn’t know Rocco was a Serpent and that he would tell us everything. Maybe she’ll learn not to trust everybody.”

“Can Sweet—”

Sweet Pea scoffed, not even needing to hear the rest of Jughead’s sentence to realize what he was going to say. “If you think i’m going to fix your mistake, then you’re an idiot. Now that Toni knows and has given you an order, I’ll be going to see Fangs. After last night he’s kinda down, and I know just how to help.”

“So, I get to confront Betty Cooper while you skip school to fuck your boyfriend?” Jughead gaped, turning to Toni, “don’t you have anything for him or Fangs to do?”

“Fangs’ mother is in the hospital, so he doesn’t have to do shit,” Toni crossed her arms, rolling her eyes at the boy’s childish behavior. “And Sweet Pea is his boyfriend, and if he wants to make Fangs feel better by having sex, then he can. Unless I need him—which I don’t until later tonight—he’s free. You, however, spilled your guts to blonde barbie so it’s your job to tell her what she has to do.”

“Okay, and what if she refuses?” Jughead exhaled, sending Sweet Pea a glare as he noticed his fellow Serpent wearing a silly grin on his lips. “What if I tell her that she has to and she, I don’t know, says she doesn’t care and refuses?”

“Then send her my way.”

Toni Topaz sat down in her seat beside Cheryl Blossom, flicking her tongue out to wet her lips as the girl’s perfume wafted into her nose and it almost made her let out a groan—whatever it was, wherever it was from, the scent was woodsy and masculine, and while she found that odd that she was wearing men’s cologne, she decided not to comment on it since they were on a temporary truce due to their paper.

“Please tell me you did your part of the paper,” Cheryl sighed, turning to the right in her chair to face Toni. The whiteboard in front of them was wiped clean, except for the words “work on creationism paper” and then, “9:45, Zeus activity” which essentially told them that for most of the class they would be working with their partner. “I know we have some sort of white flag waving but if you have time to run a stupid gang, you can surely write a paper.”

Toni locked her jaw, scoffing, “you call that waving a white flag? I didn’t go after you for wearing men’s cologne, now do I, Blossom?”

“When JJ is at school and I miss him, sometimes I spritz on his cologne. At least I don’t constantly smell like I just rolled in five piles of trash,” Cheryl spit, then closed her eyes and took a breath. “Sorry, truce… do you have yours done?”

“Nah, I had one of my stupid gang members to do it for me,” Toni muttered, bringing her backpack onto her lap and sliding out her orange folder titled MYTHOLOGY. Opening it, she tossed the paper over to Cheryl and smiled sarcastically. “So, how exactly are we going to combine them? Annotate what we like?”

“We have all of class to work on it, so we’ll just combine our best parts and voila!” Cheryl smiled down at the papers. Despite five second before being annoyed with the redhead, she admired how sweet she looked. Dimples accentuating her plump red lips, eyes sparkling… it was so weird how she was only just now realizing how pretty the Blossom looked. But she was straight, so falling for her would only end up in heartache. Besides, why would Toni Topaz fall for a girl who loathed the South Side Serpents? Toni didn’t know anything about Cheryl, and Cheryl didn’t know anything about Toni. They probably didn’t have anything in common: why would she fall for her?

Sadly, by the end of class they hadn’t finished their conjoined paper, so Toni invited Cheryl to the Blue and Gold room—Betty Cooper despised how Toni was the only person to sign up for the photography portion of the school’s newspaper, so she had to let her join. Everyday after school she got to annoy Betty and it was absolutely wonderful. After Jughead telling her she had no choice in the matter of helping them raid Lodge Industries, it was going to be especially wonderful.

Toni twirled in her chair as she scrolled through the various shots she had taken yesterday afterschool. Before Fangs’ mother was taken to the hospital, she had a couple of hours to spare after telling her close, most trusted Serpents she had chosen to help with their plan about what they were doing and why. Reminiscing on how carefree and simple her short time wandering around the town snapshotting anything that caught her eye felt, she sighed in content, mentally going through each picture for one that was good enough for the newspaper.

“So, because half of the girls on the cheer team are out sick, Cheryl cancelled,” the door to the Blue and Gold opened, and in walked Betty Cooper with Archie Andrews. When she noticed the queen of the Serpents sitting at the computer, Betty froze, eyeballing the boy beside her in horror. Toni had to laugh at how she freaked out, probably hoping Toni wouldn’t talk about what Jughead should have told her earlier that day in front of Archie. “Uh, hey, Arch, I totally spaced and forgot my lunchbox and some of my textbooks. Could you go grab them for me, please?”

Archie smiled, genuinely happy to fetch whatever the blonde needed. Toni rolled her eyes, thinking that if anyone in the school were soulmates, Betty and Archie would have been just that. She hid her sorrows of being single behind her disgust. “Yeah, sure. Which textbooks?”

“My math book. Oh, and my green folder for my journalism class!” Betty called, laughing sweetly as the boy swiftly exited the room. She waited until the door closed before she turned back to Toni. “There is no way I am helping you raid Lodge Industries! I promise, I won’t say anything to anyone.”

Exhaling yet another sigh, Toni turned her chair around to face the blonde. She wished she didn’t have to force her hand, but having innocent Betty help them with their plans so she wouldn’t be able to snitch without incriminating herself was the only way she could protect the Serpents. “Fine, then i’ll tell your boyfriend why the guy he was about to date dumped a chocolate milkshake all over him and called him a manipulating douchebag. Mmmhm, I truly wonder where he got that from.”

“How do you even know about that?” Betty looked almost to the brink of tears, crossing her arms in an attempt to feel safe, guarded.

“Rocco is a Serpent, and he told me everything that happened. You see, as their leader they trust me with anything and everything. So, when I found him crying instead of doing inventory, he told me about how Betty Cooper told him that Archie Andrews wasn’t a good guy, that he only got close to him because it was a dare and that whatever they had was fake,” Toni raised her eyebrows, almost feeling bad for her as tears spilled down her cheeks at the awful betrayal she had done to her crush. “I guess it’s a good thing he didn’t go back and explain to cute little Archie about why he did it, huh? You’re welcome, I told him you North Siders weren’t worth it, and to find someone else who won’t hurt him.”

“I’m supposed to be thanking you, and helping you raid Lodge Industries because you wanted something to blackmail me with?” Betty shook her head, features hard and angry. “Go ahead, tell Archie. I don’t care. It’s better than working for a snake!”

Toni panicked; if she couldn’t rein Betty into working with them, how else would she keep Betty from telling the police, or Hiram Lodge? She wasn’t really friends with his daughter, Veronica, ever since Cheryl Blossom made her kiss Archie in a game of seven minutes in heaven when she first arrived. Was Betty for once going to admit to something bad that she did, or was she simply bluffing? Toni would have to wait until Archie came back to test that out.

They stayed in silence after their argument, but Betty couldn’t get Toni’s nonchalant, uncaring shrug before she swiftly turned around and went back to picking out pictures out of her head. She apparently wasn’t bothered by her refusal, but that’s what irked her—why wasn’t she beyond pissed?

When Archie passed through the doorway with a small smile, he placed her books and folder on the table in front of Betty. She thanked him by placing a chaste kiss on his cheek. Her demeanor was short lived, however, as Toni made a show of turning back around with a wicked smile on her face. “Hey, Archie, right?”

Betty froze, suddenly feeling bile rise in her throat. She said she didn’t care, but who was she trying to kid, Archie meant so much to her and if he found out that she got in the way of him and a guy he was genuinely liking, he would never speak to her again.

“Yeah…” Archie narrowed his gaze at the pink haired Serpent, unsure why she would be talking to him. The Bulldogs and the Serpents despised one another, so she must have had something important to talk to him about.

“Do you remember Rocco? Rocco Montgomery?” Toni asked the redhead. From the way his body tensed, Toni could tell he was still upset over what had happened. She was incredible at reading people—it’s a part of what made her such a great leader.

Archie, despite his heart aching over the boy he liked, pretended he meant nothing and scoffed, “what about him?”

“I heard he moved on!” Betty chimed in quickly, glancing at Archie for a second or two, and then at Toni, smiling lightly at the girl. “Isn’t that right, Toni? You were telling me that he was happily in a relationship with some boy in the Serpents. Some guy named Stripe?”

Bingo. She had Betty under her thumb—it was all just a front. Toni nodded lightly, agreeing with her despite it not being true. “Yeah. But he did say he wanted to apologize for wasting a perfectly good milkshake by pouring it over your head. He feels really bad but he’s afraid that if he comes up to you during school, you and your Bulldog buddies will beat him to a pulp. And after school, well, he’s incredibly busy with Serpent duties.”

She may want Betty’s compliance just to keep her people safe from the cops, but she was not going to throw one of her own into the dog pit for Betty’s sake. He didn’t deserve that—she knew that Rocco genuinely liked Archie and her statement was partly true, all she really did was keep the fact that it was Betty who lied about him to Rocco from Archie.

Archie’s expression fell, unsure how to really react. All this time, he thought he had hated him for no reason—he wasn’t sure what the reason was but at least if he wanted to apologize, that was progress. “Do you know where he is?”

“He should be at Pop’s, or speaking with Veronica at La Bonne Nuit,” Toni said, knowing that if Rocco wasn’t aware that he didn’t know, he could blow the entire thing keeping Betty silent.

Archie sent a quick nod of thanks before he turned to Betty. “I gotta get to football practice, but later i’m going to go and talk to him, okay? So i’ll text you about dinner, yeah?”

“Yeah, i’ll see you later, Arch,” Betty laughed as Archie placed a kiss onto the top of her head, and he zoomed out of the room. “Toni, what the hell? If Archie asks Rocco and your Serpent pet tells him—”

“Relax, i’m giving him a heads up right now,” Toni rolled her eyes, whipping out her phone to send him a text. With a smile, though, she glanced back up at the blonde. “I’m glad you decided to join us.”

“This is only a one time thing,” Betty reminded, curling her lip in anger. “I meant what I said about me not telling anybody about what Jughead told me."

“Speaking of Jughead, why were you with him, anyways?” Toni questioned, eyes on her phone as she typed out a message to Rocco. “The only time you two hang out is in here, for the newspaper.”

“Disgusting, I would never get with Jughead,” Betty gagged, “I like Archie, as you know, but I wanted his take on the groups that occupy the school. The cheerleaders, the jocks, the preps, the so-called losers, and, you know, the gang he’s in. And he was drunk, and just had to tell me the one thing that could ruin my life.”

“Aw, little miss perfect can’t stand that she did an awful thing to keep her crush from getting with a guy he really liked?” Toni puffed out her bottom lip, rolling her eyes. “You’re not perfect, you know. Nobody is. I don’t see why you have to hide it.”

“You just don’t understand. You don’t know me!” Betty scoffed, “i’m going to see if the cafeteria has any leftovers.”

“Bring me back a chocolate milk?”

“No way in hell!” Betty called back.

“Woah,” Cheryl Blossom’s voice was a surprise to Toni. She remembered telling her to meet in the Blue and Gold room to finish their creationism story, but after what happened with Betty she almost forgot. “Betty seems very angry… what did you do to my cousin?”

Toni finished her text to Rocco and placed her phone down before sending the Blossom a feigned gasp, “me? Why do you assume I did anything?”

“Because you are Antoinette Topaz, a girl who leads a gang and doesn’t care for anybody else’s feelings,” Cheryl smiled mockingly. Toni couldn’t help but laugh that she thought the pink haired Serpent didn’t care about anybody else’s feelings considering it was the exact opposite. “Can we just get this done? The faster we do it, the faster I can get back to more important things.”

Toni sneered, “oh, yeah? Like what? Wasting money on things that don’t matter and being a spoiled little rich bitch?”

“Much more fun than selling drugs and dragging down the school’s ranking in the education system,” Cheryl shot back. “Whatever, can we just hurry up and get these last few paragraphs, type it up, and be on our way?”

Toni turned back to the monitor, about to exit out of her pictures until Cheryl held her hand up. “What?”

“Did you take that?”

“Yeah. What, just because i’m from the South Side doesn’t mean I don’t have hobbies, or that i’m not good at anything. Photography is something I really love doing,” Toni answered honestly. “But like you said, let’s hurry up and get this done. I have important shit to do.”

“Yeah, me too, I have a party to create.”

Toni scoffed, “don’t even pretend that your dumb party is more important than me making a living.”

“I won’t as long as you stop pretending you’re better than everyone else just because you run a gang.”

“Mmhm… then I guess neither of us are going to get what we want, are we?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry it has taken so long to get this chapter out. I lost my inspiration after my mother was taken to the hospital and over the month I’ve tried to write but I wasn’t sure what to do/how to write it. I’m sorry it’s so weird, because Cheryl is in Toni’s body and Toni is in Cheryl’s body, but while narrating mainly as Cheryl, I figure it would have been weirder for her to constantly say that Cheryl (aka Toni as her) was doing whatever so instead I use their names and you’ll just have to remember that they’re not in their own bodies… did that make sense? God, I’m so sorry lmaooooo ANYWAYS I HOPE YOU ENJOY

All night, both girls tossed and turned, unable to find a comfortable position that would allow them to drift off into a desperately needed slumber. It wasn’t until three in the morning that they could truly get some sleep that lasted longer than thirty minute intervals. But, what neither of them realized, was that Cheryl was, technically, sleeping on the rough, green couch in the Topaz trailer on the South Side’s trailer park, and, technically, Toni was sleeping in a luxurious, red velvet bed where she could stretch out her bones and feel like she was floating on sky high. It wouldn’t be until both of their alarms blared beside them that they bolted upright and realized: “this isn’t where I went to sleep last night… where the hell am I?”

Cheryl gazed about the trailer, eyes furrowed as she wondered if she had been kidnapped. If she had, she laughed in her head at the fact that they took the wrong twin: her parents didn’t really care for her, they loved Jason much more than they did to her. “Shut that damned alarm up, I need to sleep!” A gruff, angry voice shouted, along with a soft thump at the door at the end of the trailer causing Cheryl to jump. Hastily, she turned to the phone displayed on the small table and reached for it. She hadn’t even realized that her skin color wasn’t pasty white like normal, that it was more of a beautiful warm caramel. Placing her thumb on the fingerprint, she shook her head, knowing it wasn’t going to work because it wasn’t her phone. To her surprise, though, the alarm stopped and the phone opened.

The background of the phone showed Toni, posing beside Sweet Pea and Fangs Fogarty, her two most trusted and loyal friends and fellow Serpents, in front of a campfire. Clicking on the photo app, she sifting through the photos on the phone and came to the conclusion that the phone she held belonged to Toni. However, that still didn’t answer why she had the phone, why it opened for her as if her fingerprint was scanned into the phone, and why she woke up in some random trailer.

“Toni, you better be gettin’ ready for school. I want you out of here by six!” the same voice screamed through the door.

She could barely pay attention to that, though, because the phone began buzzing in her hand and up popped her number. Immediately, she answered and placed the phone to her ear. “Hello? Who is this, and why do you have my phone?”

“Why do you have my phone?”

“What do you mean, you’re calling from my phone,” Cheryl hissed.

“Yeah, and you just answered my phone,” the girl snarked back.

Cheryl was utterly confused. If she could go back to sleep and have this nightmare be over, she would, but something told her that this wasn’t a dream. “Wait… this is Toni? You don’t sound like Toni.”

“And according to the background being Cheryl Blossom and Betty Cooper, the only person I know who would live in such a luxurious-like room would be Blossom, so why did I wake up in your room?” Cheryl could hear a door being opened, and a gasp escape Toni’s lips. And shortly after, another one that most definitely wasn’t one of awe made Cheryl wonder what the hell Toni was looking at. “Cheryl… you see that door to the side of the trailer? Not my uncle’s room at the far end, but to your right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Just go to it. It’s the bathroom.”

“Why do I want to go to your bathroom? I want to know why i’m in your—”

“Just fucking go, Cheryl.”

With a huff, she got up and made her way to the bathroom door, taking a step into the small bathroom. “So, why am I—” Cheryl faced the mirror and gasped at her reflection. It wasn’t her reflection at all, it was Toni’s. Touching her cheek, she tilted her head to see if it would follow her movements and, sure enough, it did. “Toni… why am I you?”

“That’s a great question that I wish I had the answer to, but sadly I do not. Look, get dressed and leave before six or else my uncle will have a bitch fit, okay? We’ll meet in the Blue and Gold room and try to figure this out,” Toni demanded. “Sound like a plan?”

Cheryl grumbled, “don’t look at me naked, Topaz.”

Even through the phone she could imagine the girl, as herself, smirking. “How else am I going to get dressed? No promises, Bombshell. I don’t mind if you take a peek at me, maybe it’ll incite some new feelings in you, get you to open up and stop being such a bitch all the time.”

“Fuck you, i’ll see you at school.”

“Clothes are in a suitcase beside the couch, my uncle won’t come out until a little after six so you don’t have to worry about him seeing anything,” Toni stated before the call ended.

With one last look at herself, at Toni, in the mirror, she took in a deep breath. “You can do this, Bombshell. Let’s show everybody what you’re made of.”

Moving back towards the couch, she leaned down and picked up the suitcase, placing it on the cushions so she could sift through it and hopefully find something she could see herself wearing. She might be in Toni’s body, but she certainly still had her conscience.

She found a simple black tank top and a flowery see-through shirt to go over it, accompanied with dark wash jeans and red converse. Normally, her style was high heels so everybody could hear her coming, but it’s not like she could ravage through her own closet back at home. Toni didn’t have that many pairs, and unless Cheryl felt like putting on heavy combat boots, she decided the red converse were more acceptable.

Thankfully, Cheryl had actually taken motorcycle driving lessons from her grandfather before he passed. She wasn’t an expert, but okay enough to not crash and burn two seconds into starting one. Besides, the school wasn’t that far. Throwing the bag she knew so well from Mythology class over her shoulder, she revved up the motorcycle and zoomed out of the trailer park.

The ride was only about five minutes, and she parked in her usual spot by the front of the school. Normally, this is where she would go to the gym and warm up her body for cheerleading later in the day but that was the least of her worries at the moment. She just wanted to get to the Blue and Gold room and hash this out with Toni… who was in her body for some reason.

Cheryl never thought seeing herself would give her such relief, but she let out a sigh as familiar red hair was neatly brushed and parted down the middle. It was kind of different than her usual taste, but it fit well. Locking the door to the room, she then glanced over at Toni. “So, have any theories on why we Freaky Friday’d?”

Toni hoisted herself off of the counter and shrugged. “I have no idea, but i’m wondering when it’s going to end, and how we’re going to continue on with our lives.”

“Oh, no, I am not going to live my life out as Toni Topaz, queen of the South Side Serpents! I can’t run a gang, and I sure as hell can’t bring… you know… me into it. I am not a part of your world, and as you, bringing Cheryl Blossom into your life would cause suspicion,” Cheryl creased her eyebrows, confusing herself. She was in Toni’s body, but talking about herself. It was… odd. And, hopefully, it made sense.

“Well it’s a good thing my gang honors, trusts, and respects me, because if I… er… you told them that we were a thing, they’d let it slide,” Toni stated, holding out her fingers as she inspected her nails. “You know, you should really cut your nails. They’re getting pretty long.”

“Cheryl Blossom dating Toni Topaz?” Cheryl scoffed, “yeah, that won’t be weird or suspicious at all. Besides, you wouldn’t be able to make any orders as me. They’d laugh it off and call you… me… a North Side princess who doesn’t get enough attention from her parents or something.”

“That was oddly specific, especially for not knowing my gang like I do,” Toni bit back. “Look, since we don’t know what happened, or why, or how long it’s going to last, we need to be prepared. That means that we have to integrate one another into our lives so it won’t be as suspicious for the other helping keep order in our lives.”

“Fine, but dating is out of the question,” Cheryl crossed her arms and stomped her foot. “My parents are homophobic and if they found out, i’m dead. Actually, technically, you would be dead because you’re in my body.”

“C’mon, everyone loves enemies to lovers, that’s why everyone finds Veronica and Jughead’s budding relationship interesting. Sudden lovers or friends is just so… suspicious.” Toni bit down on her lip, emitting a low, exasperated groan. “But I understand the homophobia. My uncle hates that I date girls.”

“Yeah, well, my parents would either disown or kill me, so, again, dating is out of the question,” Cheryl repeated. “Look, we worked on a project together and we got close. I mean, c’mon, we’re talking about soulmates in Mythology.”

Toni blinked a couple of times. “Wait… Mythology. Soulmates.”

Cheryl’s eyes widened. “Oh, shit, our paper is due today! It was in my bag, do you have it?”

“Yes, but that’s not why I brought it up. Cheryl, our soulmate creationism story… the entire story we created,” Toni paused, hoping Cheryl would catch on, but when Cheryl didn’t seem to reciprocate, she continued with arms crossed. “They switch bodies to understand each other better.”

“Us, soulmates? Enemies who were quite literally born to be together?” Cheryl chuckled softly, dismissing the idea. “I think platonic soulmates would make more sense.”

“Think about it. Why else would we switch lives? We fight all the time, but we know nothing about each other. Maybe we are soulmates in some way, shape, or form,” Toni shrugged innocently, unsure.

Cheryl was about to respond, but seeing Betty bursting through the Blue and Gold door ceased their mythological soulmate conversation. “Hey, Betty.”

Betty’s eyebrows creased, “uh, hey, Toni.”

“Right, i’m Toni Topaz,” Cheryl muttered under her breath, straightening out her back as if to take on the challenge of making Betty believe that Cheryl was actually Toni. “Well, I have to go take care of some Serpent business, so if you’ll excuse me…” Turning to Toni, she smacked her lips with a taunting smirk. “Blossom, don’t forget our paper. I don’t want to get an “F” because you can’t do one simple task, got it?”

Cheryl almost felt powerful because she knew that Toni would have to be like her, and while she felt like a badass, pretending to be a redheaded fire-ball would still be a hard task for Toni. However, clearly, she was up to the challenge. “Yeah, yeah, Topaz. We get it, you’re a lowlife Serpent who needs good grades to get into college. Don’t worry, I have just as much at stake as you when it comes to grades and college.”

Cheryl nodded slowly, unsure how to respond, or how Toni would respond. “Good.”

On her way past Betty, the blonde clamped a hand on Cheryl’s arm, teeth grit as she leaned towards her ear. “Since you’re going to blackmail me into working with you, where do I meet you after school?”

Leaning back in surprise, Cheryl gazed down at her cousin in confusion. Toni was blackmailing Betty to work for the Serpents? “Where are we meeting after school for the work you owe me?” She made sure to say it aloud so Toni could overhear in hopes that she could jump in for the rescue. Betty’s grip tightened on her arm, attempting to bring her farther from who Betty thought was her cousin. “I don’t want anyone to know that i’m helping you. You’re already blackmailing me, isn’t that enough? Do you want to ruin my life just because I fucked up?”

“Don’t worry, Coop—dear cousin Betty, I already know about the Serpents’ plan to raid Lodge Industries,” Toni coughed, desperately hoping that Betty didn’t catch on to her cousin calling her by her last name because only Toni Topaz would use that, not Cheryl. “Toni needed my smarts, so she agreed to give me some of the share.”

Cheryl widened her eyes at Toni, mouthing “why would you make her think i’d willingly join you?”

Betty scoffed, “you’re willingly helping your enemy break into Lodge Industries for… money? You own the entire maple business, Cheryl, you don’t need money.”

“You’re right, I don’t. But if I want to make my own money, without my parent’s help, then this is how to start. Don’t worry, it’s a one time deal, okay?” Toni rolled her eyes, “look, I have to get to class, but we’ll meet up at Toni’s trailer after school since her uncle will be gone until midnight.”

Watching her own body breeze past, Cheryl turned to Betty as she glared down at Toni. “Can’t fucking believe you got Cheryl into this…”

Shrugging, Cheryl just wanted to get out of the room and focus on trying to pretend to be Toni until whatever happened goes back to normal. “Fucking believe it, then. See you back at my place, Cooper.”

**Author's Note:**

> The greek soulmate myth was from this website: https://truththeory.com/2018/01/08/meaning-soul-mate-according-greek-mythology/
> 
> I really like this idea so I really hope you do, too! Don’t forget to comment because they give me life and validation and I crave that so


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